Live Review: ArcTanGent 2026 – Saturday
22nd August 2026
Words: Matt Noble
Photos: Rich Price
The warm, fuzzy tones of Brummie witch coven Meatdripper begin the final day of music nicely on the PX3 stage. The crushing doom riffs and tasteful Iommian lead guitar work pay homage to the obvious legends from their city, but the whimsical lead vocals and general sense of psychedelic weirdness genuinely feel new and different for the genre. Moreover, the energy that they bring is wholesome and fun. With riffs and gloom cooked up straight from the cauldron, ‘Spider’ gets heads moving away to its catchy groove, and the month-old new single ‘Exterminate Her’ also goes down well. Each member owns her place in the band, with vocal harmonies (and some vicious screaming from guitarist Zowie at the end of ‘Homegrown’), a powerhouse drum performance and a fantastic stage presence all around. Their future looks bright indeed.
Din Of Celestial Birds bring their atmospheric post-rock to the Yohkai Stage shortly after lunch. At times gentle, and at other times, completely crushing, their impassioned performance even brings one of their own guitarists to tears towards the end. There is so much emotion running through each note, from sad, haunting melodies led by dreamy synths, all the way to uplifting, euphoric guitar lines, which sound gorgeous when the band use triple guitar harmonies. Din Of Celestial Birds are an instrumental act, but manage to say so much and really tell stories without words. The ‘Takeoffs & Landings’ record is only weeks old by the time they hit the stage, sounding fresh and powerful with a Baroness-like level of ‘heavy’, but delivered with their own post-rock textures. Worth checking out!
After half a decade on hiatus, Leeched’s second show back is a genuine surprise for the weekend. A deep bass note rings out, creating an uneasy industrial tension before the three bandmembers calmly walk on and take their places to deliver what could be the heaviest set of the festival. Playing through Orange amplifiers, the guitar and bass sound is apocalyptically low, while their dual vocal attack sounds positively savage. New drummer Tyler Hodges handles the oppressively slow tempos with as much confidence as he does when the band dial up to a hardcore blast or a brutal crust beat – sometimes switching from one extreme to the other at the drop of a hat for an unpredictable and even unsettling set. Leeched have plenty of groovy moments though, snapping everyone’s necks about, and the dissonant guitar layering sometimes adds some texture into Leeched’s brute force. They’ve got a lot happening to keep us all hooked. Leeched are industrial, noisy and punishingly loud. Keep an eye out for their return to live music, this set was something special.
The misanthropic noisemakers in Chat Pile gather a hell of a turnout on the main stage. Bringing a punk ethos, social commentary and Raygun Busch’s charming, nonchalant stage patter, the riffs are savage, the grooves are nasty and dissonant, and the pits are absolutely brutal. Recent single ‘PEN I S MALL’, introduced as being about Busch’s time working in a mall, gets an absolutely rabid response as the crowd feels the pure bile delivered onstage. There is something extremely direct about Chat Pile and the utter ugliness of their music that ties into the evocative, visceral lyrics. Busch gathers a scream-along of ‘Why?’ in the song of the same name, written unapologetically about resource allocation and rough sleepers. His storytelling and delivery is a little unhinged and almost scary, which helps build a set that as audience members we experience rather than just watch. We’ve got some all-timers in the making here. Their new album drops in the first week of September. You’ve been warned…
The Californian sludge/thrash legends in High On Fire close the Yohkai stage. A chance to see Matt Pike in the flesh – and indeed Matt Pike’s flesh, his iconic topless figure with a guitar in hand dominating the right hand side of the tent – is enough to fill out the second stage. A Grammy winner and relentless heavy metal lifer, he’s a guitar god in his own right. But Ben Koller, who headlined Arctangent with Converge in 2023, gives an outstanding performance on the drumkit, and Jeff Matz’s bass tone sounds absolutely huge, holding down the low end with real power. High On Fire entertain the tent and provide the soundtrack to some good old-fashioned Saturday night pints with pummelling riffs and sonic savagery. Preferring not to mess about too much between songs so High On Fire put on a memorable set for their fans, Pike gets the crowd moving and delivers his vocal snarl with charisma. ‘10,000 Years’ is ace, its iconic twisting riff going down a storm, while ‘Snakes For The Divine’ is a real treat, sounding seriously heavy out the front. Playing riffs for riff worshippers, High On Fire do not disappoint.
Closing the curtain on the main stage not just for Arctangent 2026 but also for Fernhill Farm is a rare performance of ‘Mariner’ by Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas. It’s the kind of set you can sway about to and calmly enjoy the vibe of after several days of camping and partying in a field. But for post-metal musos, it’s a set you can boast that you were there for. ‘Mariner’ hasn’t been played since before the pandemic. And today’s performance reminds us all that it really is a great album, the troupe of musicians bleeding every drop of emotion from the songs into something real and raw for today’s performance.
The dark intensity of ‘The Wreck Of S.S. Needle’ is particularly strong, with Julie’s vocals soaring high above the sheer wall of sound Cult Of Luna bring to the slot. The massive sonic power that the band bring is awe-inspiring, with the reverb of the guitars, the shimmering keys and the pounding rhythms mixed with precision and intent out the front. ‘Cygnus’, in turn, is transcendental, building higher and higher at the song’s apex. Julie Christmas’s piercing vocal wail provides a great contrast with the brutal roar from Cult Of Luna’s Johannes Persson. You feel like you need a sit down or time to reflect when it’s all over. For an album themed on exploring outer space, you could certainly call this headline show otherworldly.
It’s a full package, too. The stage smoke creates a subtle haze over the tent, and the intense light show reduces those onstage to silhouettes. The visual effect is nothing short of mesmerising. As the final notes from ‘Mariner’ die out and the set ends, the entire tent can be seen – and heard – responding with genuine enthusiasm and appreciation for what we have all witnessed. Where else but Arctangent for a headline set like this? Where else would you fill a tent of this size for music that sounds like this? What on earth have they got up their sleeves for 2027?
Photo credits: Rich Price
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